From HD to LD

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Level 1

6 points

From HD to LD

Hello

I have a Vado HD camera which films in HD and it is great. When I plug in the camera to the TV, or when I download the videos to my Mac, they look great.

Now, these are all .AVI videos. In most cases, I need to put together a few of these videos and add some titles, etc. edit, add music, so I can share with friends and family. iMovie is great for this but...

iMovie 09 can't import .AVI videos. So there is the option to use a program like MPEG streamclip to convert each AVI into and mp4 for instance, but this is very time consuming.

So I found out that iMovie HD does allow for import of AVI files, so this is what I did. I then add the editing I want and export in the Highest Quality possible to a .mov. Then, I import this .mov into iMovie 09, and from here I can share easily with my Mobile Me gallery for instance, something I can't do with iMovie HD.

My problem is that the quality of the movie is awful! It looks as if it was filmed on a cheap camera, very very low quality.

What can I do?

Thanks
J

iMac / MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Mar 23, 2010 5:37 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

AppleMan1958

Level 7

27,492 points

Mar 23, 2010 6:32 AM in response to newleopard

Use MPEG Streamclip's batch mode.

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Answer 2

newleopard Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 23, 2010 8:39 AM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks. Works Great, although I have 2 problems.

1) MPEG Streamclip has too many options. Should I convert or export? Which format? and if I select mp4, I am thrown into an options screen with at least 20 different settings. Help?
2) I used the default setting for convertion to Mp4, and the resulting videos have no sound. They have lost the sound.
J

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Answer 3

newleopard Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 24, 2010 6:02 PM in response to newleopard

Anybody else experience this? Why do my AVIs loose their sound when I open them in MPEG Streamclip?

J

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Answer 4

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Mar 24, 2010 7:45 PM in response to newleopard

This review http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/43998/review/vado_hd.html says your camera has H.264 video and suggests using the Perian CODEC pack with Quicktime to use the videos. Take a look at the article.

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Answer 5

newleopard Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 2, 2010 11:25 AM in response to F Shippey

Yes, I have Perian and I can see and hear the videos OK, but to be able to import them to a program such as iMovie, I need to use the so called MPEG Streamclip, and when I do so, I hear nothing. MPEG seems to not be able to import sound
J

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Answer 6

Apr 2, 2010 11:36 AM in response to newleopard

I would recommend using MPEG Streamclip with the following settings:

1) FILE/EXPORT TO QUICKTIME
2) For Compression, choose Apple Intermediate Codec (h.264 will also work, but may be sluggish during editing)
3) For Sound, choose Uncompressed
4) For frame size, keep it the same as you camera shoots, e.g. 1920x1080
5) For interlacing, if your camera shoots Progressive, deselect Interlaced Scaling.

Then click Make Movie, and give it a filename and location.

Then, in iMovie, click FILE/Import/Movies

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Answer 7

newleopard Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 2, 2010 2:30 PM in response to AppleMan1958

Still no sound!
I dont get any sound when I open my videos in MPEG stream clip, let alone when I export them!
J

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Answer 8

Apr 2, 2010 2:48 PM in response to newleopard

I would guess it is using a weird audio codec. I would recommend you go to www.Perian.org and download their package of components (free). Then try MPEG Streamclip again.

The Vado HDs that have been manufactured since Sept 2009 appear to have Mac compatibility if you install their software. Before that, they are windows only (but you should be able to convert using MPEG Streamclip if you have Perian installed.)

I found [this from the Vado Website|http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=62149] which tells me that Perian and MPEG Streamclip is the way to go. QuickTime Pro would also do the conversion, but it costs about $30.
That is for the first generation Vado, so if you have a more recent vintage, you can check their website to see if anything is different.

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